Ancient Space - Mission Walkthroughs - Mission 13 - The Figurehead

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Mission 13 - The Figurehead

Sector 1

• No point holding any Stations because of continual reinforcements of Dreadnoughts, Centurions, Violators, and Corsairs.
• The Scythe units can handle the Dreadnought reinforcements but not before they destroy some stations or do serious damage.
• You don't have to hold any Stations here but at least briefly grab the one Station that provides Replicants briefly because you retain your ships even if you lose the station and your Replicant Total becomes less than your Replicant Used count.
• Near the dead wormhole where Violators and Corsairs appear is a trio of Stations. On the Station nearest to the wormhole, build an Artillery Station. Support it with two Repair Stations and it should hold out indefinitely because the Scythe won't let the Dreadnought close enough.
• Be sure to jump the Violator BEHIND the locked Warp Gate in Sector 2 so you can safely destroy it without drawing attention.

Sector 2

• You can clear out Sector 2, so might as well take all Stations.
• Handle the hangars first since your Scythe allies are endless and will keep the PRC Trojan side too busy to come over.
• Your Violator shouldn't need help with this gate, but if it does, change to warp gate mode and call in two Trojans is a good option. Make sure to hang one Trojan back in order to release the other from EMP stun.
• Taking out the hangars also seems to stop the flow of enemies into Sector 1 (?) except Violators (in part because you need a source of them if you lose them trying to open the locked gates). After clearing Sector 2 you can go back to secure all Stations in Sector 1.
• There are explosive barrels you can take. You could do a suicide run on the gate in Sector 3 using Rovers warped in but we were striving for no unit losses so we didn't do that.

Sector 3

• Part 1 - Open Warp Gate
• Opening this gate is complicated by the Artillery Stations, and cloaked units coming in to EMP your Violator.
• Artillery Stations:
• You can position your Violator outside the fog of war and behind the Gate, and usually avoid Artillery fire.
• If you can't avoid artillery fire, move to one side and handle one Artillery Station at a time.
• The warp gate is a big enough target that your Violator can automatically shoot at it even if it is in a fog of war. Therefore, at most you only need to take out one Artillery Station.
• Cloaked Ships:
• Cloaked enemies can be visually detected by their engine trails. If you see them coming, warp your Violator out. They will leave and patrol elsewhere.
• If you lose your Violator, just go back to Sector 1 and Board another with a Corsair or your Ulysses I if on Offensive Setup.
• Theoretically jump your first Violator into the explosive barrels in Sector 3 should cause a chain reaction to destroy all the Stations there, but it doesn't (?).
• You can safely warp to that region first to destroy the hangars: Warp outside the ring and approach one Station at a time. That should limit the number of Scouts that come to EMP your Violator at the Warp Gate. Enemy ships don't seem to harrass the Violator there.
• Part 2 - Destroy Generator
• Gate over into corner a safe distance from the fog of war around the Generator -- try the corner near the last Discovery in this Sector.
• Warp in a Javelin to Hyperspace scan into the fog of war for the Generator. Use the Javelin to destroy it and other key Stations from a distance -- once the target is spotted and being attacked, you can move your cloaked unit and attacks will continue into the fog of war.
• Doing it this way puts you far enough that you shouldn't draw attention from cloaked squadrons that would otherwise EMP your ships.
• After the Generator is destroyed, slowly move your main fleet in with Trojans hanging back to undo EMP effects on key units that are strong against Small ship squadrons.
• There are no Hangars so once all cloaked Squadrons are gone, there should be no more.
• Keep to the clump of Stations around the Generator to draw Small ships. Once their attention is in that direction, you can bring a unit over to get the last Discovery (e.g., the same Javelin you used to destroy the Generator).
• Since the Olympus is marked by a mission-target marker even in the fog of war, it should be easy to find and EMP with a Trojan area-effect blast.

In the following video you can see what happens when you try to move a ship into a force field.